Improvement in needles for sewing-machines



M. STANNARD.

Needle for Sewing Machines.

Patented June 26, 1866;

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MONROE STANNARD, OF NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO PRATT, WHITNEY & GO.

IMPROVEMENT lN NEEDLES FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,927, dated June 26, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MONROE STANNARD, of New Britain, county of Hartford, and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing-Machine N eedles; and I do hereby declare that the same is described and represented in the following specification and drawings, and to enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation by referring to the drawings, in which the same letters indicate like parts in each of the figures.

The nature of this improvement consists in making the body of the needles eccentric with its shank.

The object desired to be attained thereby is to accomplish by the needle alone what is usually deemed necessary to be accom plished only by mechanism especially adapted there- :for-viz., adjusting or arranging the mechanism of a sewing-machine so that the needle, large or small, will work in close proximity to the shuttle.

I am aware that perforating-awls which are eccentric to their shanks and of the same form as my within-described needle, but having-no eye for carrying a thread, have been made or used in sewingmachines, asin Halligaus Patent No. 49,262, such eccentricity being designed only for this purpose of allowin g the awl to be turned half round on its longitudinal axis, so that its perforation through the cloth shall be made nearer to or farther from the needle.

I am also aware that needles formed of cylindrical steel of equal diameter throughout have also been used in sewing-machines, so that when secured to the needle-bar the side toward the shuttle should be equally distant from the shuttle or its equivalent, whether a coarse or fine needle be used; but such needles are not secured in a socket in the end of a needle-bar, as is mine, nor could both large and small ones be equally firmly held in the same-sized socket.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1, 2, and 3 are side elevations of three differentsized needles made eccentric to their shanks. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are plan or top views of the shuttle and needle, showing how that after the shuttle is once arranged so as to work or travel in a line or circuit in close proximity with a needle of one size that arrangement will also suffice to produce the closely working together of the shuttle and needles of all sizes made after this improvement.

at is the needle proper. c is the shank of the needle. One side of this needle and one side of the shank of the needle are designed to be made in a continuous line, or nearly so, with each other, and this. straight side is de signed to be placed nearest to the shuttle, as shown by the top or plan views.

In this way the great difficulty heretofore existing of properly arranging the needle to act in conjunction with the shuttle, and the liability of skipping stitches and producing imperfect work, especially in the hands of inexperienced persons, is believed to be wholly removed, or nearly so.

This invention, though simple of construction, is of "ast importance in the practical working of sewing-machines.

I believe I have thus described the nature, construction, and practical advantage of this improvement so as to enable others skilled to make and use the same.

I claim-- 1. The employment of the needle, as described, in combination with a shuttle or its mechanical equivalent, substantially as and for the purpose described. H

2. As a new article of manufacture, an. eyepointed sewing-machine needle, a, eccentric with reference to its shank a, substantially as and for the purpose described.

MONROE STANNARD. [L. S.|

Witnesses E. W. MOSELEY, JEREMY W. BLIss. 

